Philadelphia Phillies: Inconsistency Between Sabermetric and Actual Wins?

I found a kind of funny statistic today.

The Phillies have the best record in baseball at 57-34. However, if you look at the statistics on FanGraphs, the Phillies are ranked third in overall wins above replacement when you add batting and pitching together behind the Red Sox and Yankees.

How does a team that is not the best in sabermetric terms manage to have the best record in baseball?

I know that right away this article is going to bring out all the people who say that sabermetrics are worthless and entirely inaccurate.

However, that is not what I mean to do with this.

I wanted to emphasize this point because I think that it is important to notice that the Phillies have been pitching that phenomenally to be able to perform better than teams that should be supposedly doing better.

If you go back to the sabermetrics, the Phillies are ranked first in pitching but 13th in batting.

Their team ERA is 3.02. That is remarkable, to say the least.

The five active starters, assuming that Kendrick will be No. 5 until either Oswalt or Blanton return, all have ERAs between 2.20 and 3.58 (Worley being the lowest and Kendrick being the highest)

These numbers are pretty crazy for a team that plays in a very hitter-friendly ballpark.

I know that talking about the success of the Phillies’ pitching is nothing new.

However, I definitely found it interesting that in terms of sabermetrics, the Phillies are over-performing largely because of the pitching success that they have been enjoying.

The other option is of course that the Yankees and Red Sox are not winning as much as they should and the Phillies are doing what they are supposed to.

As long as the Phillies keep winning, I don’t think that a lot of people will complain, whatever the reason.

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